ON TAPNorth Dakota battles its in-state rival North Dakota State for a four-game series at the Metrodome this weekend. These four games are tentatively set to be the final college games played on the Mall of America Field.

ALL-TIME VS. NDSUUND holds a 95-75-1 edge in the all-time series which dates back 102 years. UND won 3 of 4 in the teams’ last visit to the Metrodome on April 4-5, 2010. NDSU won all four games last season, which were played on campus sites.

THE SCOUT ON THE BISONNDSU is fresh off a sweep of Northern State, 5-2 and 16-2, on Mar. 23. The Bison will head to South Dakota State for a four-game series next week to open Summit League play. NDSU was a unanimous favorite to win the Summit League, according to the league’s preseason poll. The Bison feature four players at or near .300, led by Blake Turbak’s .324 average. On the hill, the trio of John Straka, David Ernst and Trevor Jaunich have been solid, etching nine of NDSU’s 10 wins while carrying a 2.70 ERA combined.

QUICK HITS• North Dakota has etched seven wins this season as of March 8. Last season, UND earned win number seven on April 25.• Junior Jacob Threlkeld tied a UND single-game record with four stolen bases in a 10-6 win over Mount Marty on Feb. 18. He leads UND with seven steals in eight tries this season.• Sophomore Andrew Thome’s no-hitter to open the season was the sixth in UND history. He notched his sixth career game going the distance without allowing an earned run (four shutouts). • In his 16 career starts, Thome has completed eight of those including two of his four starts this season.• Sophomore Jeff Campbell earned his first career shutout with a 2-0 blanking of St. Cloud State on Feb. 25. Campbell’s first career win came in a nine-inning complete game win at Creighton, allowing a single unearned run with 4 strikeouts (Mar. 16, 2012).• North Dakota has two batters hitting over .300 in the early going led by Ryan Reese’s .375 mark in seven starts with Patrick Vandoorne checking in at .368 through 11 starts.• Sophomore Tyler Follis set a UND single-season record with 74 hits in his freshman campaign. • The North Dakota pitching staff returns 85.3 percent of its innings pitched from last season. Sophomores Andrew Thome and Jeff Campbell made up 168.2 innings (37.3%) of the team’s total (452.2) in 2012.•Sophomore Patrick Vandoorne’s three-hit day in the final at Wichita State was the team’s sixth three-hit performance and he leads UND with four multi-hit games this season.

OFF TO THE WACIn February, the Western Athletic Conference announced that an invitation for affiliate membership has been issued to and accepted by the University of North Dakota to join the conference in baseball starting with the 2013-14 academic year.

North Dakota will join fellow current-Great West Conference members Chicago State, Northern Colorado, Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley as additions to the WAC for next season.

UND already has a relationship with the WAC as the women’s swimming team is an affiliate member in its second season in the league. The addition will give the WAC a total of 10 teams for baseball as North Dakota will join CSU Bakersfield, Chicago State, Grand Canyon, New Mexico State, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State, Seattle U, Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley in 2014.

GLANCE AT THE GREAT WESTNorth Dakota will be playing its fourth and final season in the Great West Conference in 2013. Utah Valley has won each of the league’s regular season and tournament titles. The conference season will culminate in Newark, N.J. May 21-26.

The other six members of the league are Chicago State, Houston Baptist, New York Tech, NJIT, Northern Colorado and Texas-Pan American. The Great West is the second conference affiliation for UND in program history. UND spent its Division II years playing in the North Central Conference.